Among the many tools at the disposal of hackers is the ubiquitous “denial of service” attack (DoS), which is basically the sending of endless traffic to a specific site until it crashes from the overload.

Many people believe that hackers direct this kind of attack only at corporate websites and servers – that’s incorrect.

Online security experts have now researched and proven that it’s possible to attack iOS devices in a similar way, causing both individual applications or an entire mobile phone to malfunction.

Mobile security firm Skycure released the results of its research on the subject at a recent industry conference, showing exactly how hackers can potentially target any device using the iOS operating system.

For hackers, the process is as simple as setting up a wireless network for phones to connect to. Once linked, a hacker can launch a script aimed at any particular device, which will cause it to crash.

Skycure’s latest finding go hand in hand with previous studies it conducted, which revealed attackers could similarly create a Wifi network and cause devices to automatically connect. With all of these findings combined into a larger picture, it becomes clear that large targeted attacks could happen in highly populated areas. A determined hacker could set up shop in Times Square and crash thousands of mobile devices in a short amount of time.

Unfortunately, there is nothing one can do to avoid this type of attack, except stay away from all unknown, unsecured Wifi networks.